Admittedly, we’re not sure what the Marvel Studios handbook for MCU newcomers entails, but we imagine the first page entails something along the lines of never giving the internet even an inch under any circumstances; even the most harmless allusion will be picked up and ran with at full distance, as one Alden Ehrenreich may be in the process of learning.
The Solo: A Star Wars Story star is set to appear in the Disney Plus series Ironheart, which will see Dominique Thorne reprise her titular role of Riri Williams from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, and which, as of the time of writing, only has one other named character in the form of Parker Robbins (aka The Hood), played by Anthony Ramos.
In a recent interview with Uproxx, Ehrenreich was tasked with playing coy when he was probed for information on his Ironheart character, and he only mostly succeeded; when asked if the character is someone we’ve seen before, the actor, perhaps innocently, replied with “kind of.”
It was enough to send r/MarvelStudiosSpoilers into a tizzy, with fans immediately latching on to the idea that Ehrenreich will portray Ezekiel “Zeke” Stane, the son of Iron Monger, the antagonist of Iron Man.
It’s hardly a confirmation, but the show’s armor themes suggest specific characters coming into play, and when it comes to Marvel, any answer that isn’t an absolute “no” will always contribute to the narrowing down of possibilities, and on top of it all, it’s not difficult to imagine Ehrenreich as the son of a younger version of Jeff Bridges.
Of course, this isn’t going to stop the rest of the internet from continuing its favorite pastime.
It’s hard to say when we’ll be getting anymore Ironheart updates, given the dubious state of the show’s release date and production timeline, so we’ll just have to wait and see if this particular round of sleuthing ends up going anywhere.